As I heard the news reports on President Obama’s visit to Moscow, I again got the feeling similar to a parent who’s child is getting taken advantage of on the playground. That feeling of helplessness that I also felt when the President visited Cairo, and Paris, and London. The refrain that rings in my head is Sen. McCain’s famous ad during the ’08 campaign… “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world… but is he ready to lead?”
The President’s consistent answer to that timeless ad is no. No matter what nation he visits, two things happen: he’s viewed and treated like a celebrity, and he kowtows to the host’s wishes/demands.
His Russian excursion is no exception. He seems to bring his wife Michelle along with the kids on these trips as well. Somebody never told him that foreign trips abroad are not just easy vacation spots. Diplomacy isn’t a family affair, especially in Moscow. Whenever you hear “Malia” and “Kremlin” in the same sentence you should be concerned. The President doesn’t seem to understand that evil men like Russian PM Putin isn’t as enamored with his picturesque family as we are in America. “Oh you have a beautiful family, well I guess I’ll give up on resurrecting the Soviet Union…” That’s pure lunacy.
The President’s meetings with the Russian tandem of leaders this week yielded expected, yet still sad results. On missile defense, Obama seems ready, willing, and able to give up the program in Poland and the Czech Republic, even though those countries and all of NATO are behind the U.S. on it. The Russians sensitivity toward a defense against Iranian and North Korean missiles should say something that our astute, well-educated President should detect. It should tell him that Russia needs to have Iran and North Korea as a threat in order to have a bargaining chip with Europe… and America (they’ve already sold missile parts to Iran). If the threat of Iranian missiles is off the table then Russia has no leverage.
Obama also heard an hour-long diatribe by Putin on the Cold War and our involvement. After this odd waste of time, Obama came out and told interviewers that America shouldn’t, and moreover cannot take credit for winning the cold war. Apparently, Putin convinced Obama of his version of history.
In all of these negotiations, all of these foreign trips, President Obama remains consistent on one thing: he’s weak. On every issue he concedes. On every debate he equivocates. On every point by a counterpart, he agrees.
When we elect a President, we elect a representative. That individual is the face of our country. We’ve chosen this man to be on the other side of the table with Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Amadinajad, Kim Jong Ill, Hugo Chavez, Rual Castro, and others. He might be talking to some of the most evil people on the planet. In every case, I fear he will negotiate out of weakness. He undoubtedly will be dictated to, as he was by Putin, and our national interest will take a back seat.
If Obama’s aim is to prevent war and death, his path will not yield his desired result. Every time America has had to fight a war, it has been when the forces of freedom and liberty were weak. That is when evil men are enabled to carry out their evil work. In Obama’s strategy lies the road to war. Obama can’t or won’t negotiate in a way that puts us in the drivers seat, we call the shots, we are the ones who talk terms, we set the agenda. In that lies the road to peace. That strategy will yield a world in which tyrants are minimized and weapons are unused. Obama says we shouldn’t dictate. He calls it arrogance, I call it strength. And strength is how war is avoided.
